Everybody needs good Neighbours

Courtesy of the Neighbours location scouts we have a bikie hive in our neighbourhood today and tomorrow. I have no idea what the storyline is.

That street is full of production trucks and as we walked to school this morning Cheekus Weekus and I saw motorbikes being unloaded. I fancied a brilliant green chopper and Cheekus had his eye on a maroon-and-black cruiser, a black-studded Harley and a very cool bike with Hot Wheels flames on the tank. We also got to see a stuntperson (we think) riding up to work, one awesome rider. Cheekus was a bit worried about her getting hurt doing stunts but reasoned out that they would all have practised first, "probably on soft sand for when they fell over".

On the way back I witnessed some action, a local bus struggling to get past a production truck. A roadie got harangued by an elderly brolly-waving passenger, the bus moved on, and it was all over.

That's quite enough now frogs

We're down to about 8 frogs now. I put their box in the winter sun and didn't notice for an hour or so that the lid was loose. Only one seems to have got out; the rest know when they're onto a good thing ie a steady stream of crickets. It was a male. Only the males call and the box has been very quiet for a day or two, so I figured we had lost the only remaining boy.

At one stage the kids had named our frogs and christened a pair of likely lads Bradley and Dumbledore. They immediately became indistinguishable from every other frog we had, except Matilda. We know she is still with us because of her whale-like proportions and very pale skin.

Last night around sunset Bradley (or Dumbledore) happily sang his usual evening song from somewhere in the garden. I rushed about with a torch but of course he promptly shut up, and anyway was hiding.

Around 3 am the awful truth emerged. Bradley (or Dumbledore) had not been the last boy. He had simply been the loudest. Bradley and Dumbledore manfully croaked at each other for a good half an hour, Bradley (or Dumbledore) from the garden and Dumbledore (or Bradley) from the frogbox in the hallway right outside our bedroom. They have now been renamed Bloody Frog 1 and Bloody Frog 2.

Melted Moments

Success story: Thanks to Sarah, I found a recipe for chocolate chip bikkies (we do not eat "cookies" in this house) which worked. I used 200g instead of 400g of chocolate and about 170g rather than 200+g of chopped nuts and the biscuits were still delicious. "Baking soda" is what we call bicarb. The quantities were generous so there are still two rolls of uncooked dough in the freezer.

Not-a-success story: Tweaking the bikkie recipe worked. Not following the steps for Melting Moments didn't. If you dump everything in a bowl in a frenzy because the Bella and twinnies are coming over for afternoon tea and you are only halfway through your planned cooking, you don't get a buttery lump of fragile dough as you do if you cream the butter and sugar first. You get custard-powder coloured breadcrumbs that sort of clump together but can't be worked.

Do not be tempted to add extra butter. You will produce sad flat little buttons totally incapable of being stuck together to make yoyos. (Nonetheless they all disappeared, and anyway the twinnies prefer chocolate, ideally all over their faces.) The bread in the background is no-knead, which is so 2009 but still delicious.

Postscript: A pair of ten-year-old boys absorbed in boy stuff at the kitchen bench will not investigate, respond to or fetch an adult regarding strange loud explosive blopping sounds from the stove. So much for the gingered pumpkin soup.

My garden at the end of May

At the end of May:

The mulberry is shedding its leaves...

the camellias are full-budded and beginning to bloom...

there are piles and piles of autumn leaves from a productive afternoon of raking by Cheekus and me (which will leave the lawn tidy until at least tomorrow, unless the piles prove irresistible). Don't laugh. It is so a lawn. You should have seen what the vendors left behind.

The vegie patch is tragic and totally unphotographable, but the little lemon tree has excelled itself...

and bulbs are starting to shoot out of the earth.

We had a tiny queen visit too.

Dial before you dig

This is a pot-bound rose from a few house renovations ago. I thought it was time it went in the garden.

This is a mattock.

These are tree roots.

This, it turns out, is not. (Hint: If it doesn't break when you tug it and it's actually straight and it's rather cold...even if it is rough and brown...don't use a large metal tool to try and break it up. Luckily the ring of metal-on-metal penetrated my brain in time.)

Going up and coming down

Today we went up to Monbulk for a belated Mothers' Day celebration with my lovely mother-in-law. There are more matriarchs in our families than can be visited in a single day.

First I took Cheekus Weekus to a rollerblading party at Caribbean Rollerama. For some unfathomable small-boy reason he spent the first ninety minutes refusing even to acknowledge he was at a party. Thankfully he eventually thawed out and whizzed very happily and competently around the rink with the others. I had promised Princess Pea I would skate with her, so I did. Most of my left palm is black-and-blue because that's what I mostly landed on. (The CFO took Running Boy to his footy match, which sadly the Under 10 Blacks lost. Again. It looks like being a character-building season.)

We love being up in the hills but usually we go straight to Granny May, and straight back. Today I was behind the wheel, the only adult in the car and I went off the straight-and-narrow in search of fresh chestnuts! There were only muted objections from the back seat. Bella Vista has lovely fat glossy nuts and also hazels and walnuts. It must be well-known in some circles as there seemed to be a constant stream of people going in buying kilos of them. Later the kids and I played Giant's Treasure with a slightly souvenired golfball while the CFO and his Mum chatted. Happy, happy day.

Nick R the Second

After helping the CFO wash dishes so that my breakfast could be cooked for me (and very good it was too) I went to the Stitches and Craft Show on Sunday afternoon, all by myself, as my Mothers' Day treat. I bought a little bag pattern from Nikki and a kinder girls pattern from Jodie and a Pippijoe basket kit. Now all I have to do is make them up. Easy.

Today was much more special. It seems happiness is a genuine St Kilda guernsey. Happy tenth birthday Running Boy! In his honour here is his favourite YouTube clip. Actually it's his second favourite but I can't stand to hear singing guineapigs any more.

BTW can anyone tell me how to do weblinks but without all the http stuff turning up - ie to make a tagline or word that acts as a link when clicked? [Edit - thankyou Stomper Girl, it worked...now my blog is just a little bit easier to read!]